Generally, an electric cable may hold a charge in many ways. For example, a charge may be held in an empty space or air between conductor tracks. Another way a charge may be held is in dielectric polarizations or mechanical stresses. At low frequencies charges often scatter towards a steady state in a statistically randomized event like white noise due to polarization mechanisms that move and orientate dielectric structures. The impact of this noise may be exaggerated by the sequential decay in a cable's dielectric and fueled by the conductor/dielectric transition time differential. This effect causes dielectric constants to drop with frequency, adding noise and jitter to a transmitted signal.
Signal propagation in a cable is generally governed by an interaction between one or more conductors and an insulating dielectric material. The signal propagating on the conductor needs to charge the surrounding dielectric material. Problems can arise when an electromagnetic wave propagates at different velocities in a conductor and an adjacent dielectric. As energy is stored and transferred at different time constants in conductors and dielectrics, a complex kinetic resonator can result, impeding performance of the cable.
In the early development of cable technology, load coils were placed in series with cable conductors at intervals along the length of the conductor. These load coils slowed the conductor to better match propagation in the dielectric. However, the load coils were bulky and caused the cable to lose dynamic range, bandwidth, and signal intensity. In particular, the load coils severely limited high frequency signal transmission because they acted as inductors and choked the line.
What is needed, therefore, is an electrical cable with a conductor having evenly distributed inductance and propagation delay, to match its wave propagation velocity to the dielectric materials in the cable.